Biking in the winter

Who said you need to put the bikes away in winter? Ok granted this particular winter for us has been extremely low snow but kids can still go out biking regularly even if there is snow on the ground.

H just learned how to glide on his balance bike when he was around 18/19 months old, just as the cold and wet weather was setting in of course. I was so excited to be able to walk at a decent pace and distance with him that I didn’t want to put up the bike for the season. 

So we didn’t. My husband found some tiny, knobby tires and switched them out. Then we proceeded to have the kid bike the trails all winter long, often with a baby E following behind in the chariot (side note: a Thule chariot with skis ands a front jogging wheel is a spectacular winter trails stroller. Even managing the skinny footpaths with ease.) While H couldn’t use the brakes with his mittens on he still had a great time and kept building up his biking skills and putting on literal miles.

Fast forward a few years and here we are with both older kids biking outside in the middle of February. When it’s real icy they’ve needed some extra traction. H has some screws in the tires of his pedal bike (and is riding a smaller bike than he did this summer for ease of handling). And we typically have E wear her spiked shoes for the balance bike.

But on packed, snowy trails? Slipping really isn’t the problem you think it would be. We actually prefer to have them on the skinny paths in the words instead of the lumpy and icy bike paths. They honestly don’t get going too fast and it’s still closer to adult walking pace which makes for a warmer experience for everyone.

Though for our kids the biggest draw is that they get to use ALL the fun light up gear!

I will make the disclaimer that we do live in an area where the winter foot trails are packed in by lots of fat bikers so that makes them better riding for the kids then just a stomped in trail.